1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector having crimp terminals, and more particularly to the connector provided with a plate-like housing and the crimp terminals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, various types of crimp connectors provided with crimp terminals for connecting electric wires by crimping, and a housing for containing the crimp terminals have been proposed.
FIG. 5 shows one example of the conventional crimp connectors. In FIG. 5, a crimp connector 1 includes a housing 2 made of synthetic resin and a plurality of crimp terminals 3 (only one is shown in FIG. 5) to which electric wires 4 are respectively connected by crimping. The housing 2 has a plurality of terminal containing sections 5 in a shape of a groove which are arranged in parallel to each other and extend in a longitudinal direction of the housing 2. At a back side of the housing 2, there is formed an open part 6 through which the electric wires 4 are connected by crimping. A mating connector which is not shown is adapted to be connected to the crimp connector 1 by way of a front end of the housing 2.
The crimp terminal 3 is manufactured of an electrically conductive metal sheet by stamping with a press and includes an electric contact portion 7 in a rectangular box-like shape and a crimping portion 8 integrally formed with the electric contact portion 7. The crimping portion 8 has a pair of upright walls opposed to each other, and a pair of crimping edges 9, 9 are formed by bending the upright walls. An electric wire 4 is crimped between the crimping edges 9, 9 so that the crimp terminal 3 and the electric wire 4 can be electrically connected.
In the above described prior art, in order to join some of the plurality of the crimp terminals 3 which are juxtaposed in the housing 2, it has been accustomed that the electric wires 4 are folded in a U-shape as shown in FIG. 6, and both ends of the wires are connected to the crimping portions 8, 8 of the corresponding crimp terminals 3, 3 by crimping. However, conducting such connecting works at an end of a wire harness has been very annoying, and productivity of the wire harness has been badly affected.
Moreover, in the above described structure of the crimp connector 1, it has been impossible to join three or more crimp terminals 3 by the electric wire 4 at a time. Therefore, there has been such a problem that number of circuits to be produced would be restricted. Needless to say, marketability of the crimp connector 1 will be deteriorated with the restricted number of the circuits.
The present invention has been made in view of the above described circumstances, and it is an object of the invention to provide a connector which can attain improved productivity of the wire harness and increase in number of the joints between the crimp terminals.
In order to solve the above described problems, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a connector comprising an insulating housing in a plate-like shape and a plurality of crimp terminals respectively having crimping portions for crimping electric wires, wherein the housing is provided with terminal containing sections in a form of a groove in which a plurality of the crimping portions are adapted to be positioned rectilinearly along axes of the electric wires to be contained, and a plurality of recesses continued from the terminal containing sections in a direction intersecting an extending direction of the terminal containing sections, and each of the crimp terminals includes an engaging portion which is integrally formed with the crimping portion in a direction intersecting an extending direction of the crimping portion and adapted to be contained in the recess to be electrically connected to a mating terminal.
According to another aspect of the present invention, at least three of the recesses are continued from each of the terminal containing sections.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, joints between the plurality of the crimp terminals can be conducted rectilinearly owing to arrangement of the terminal containing sections and the recesses in the housing, and arrangement of the crimping portion and the engaging portion of the crimp terminal. More circuits than before can be thus manufactured by joining a required number of the terminals.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, the joints among at least three crimp terminals can be rectilinearly conducted.